Confidential documents reportedly show former chief executive Wal King approved $42 million of payments to a firm in Monaco "nominated by Iraqi officials" for a $750 million oil pipeline contract.

Mr King has denied the allegations and told the ABC he will release a statement later today.

The head of forensic accounting at insolvency firm KordaMentha, Owain Stone, says companies operating in developing economies often encounter demands for bribes and kickbacks.

"For companies operating in any offshore locations the risk of fraud and corruption is probably greater than it is in Australia, but that doesn't mean it's entirely unique to offshore locations," he said.

"Transparency International provides some very good feedback on the level of risk of fraud and corruption occurring in particular locations, and location like Iraq would be considered very high-risk."

Mr Stone says because there have only been relatively few criminal convictions for corporate corruption in Australia, companies tend to see the issue as a "hypothetical rather than a real risk".

"When you compare it with the US and the UK, Transparency International has been consistently critical of the Australian Government and state government actions in respect to bribery and corruption," he said.

"There been a significant amount of criticism about the lack of prosecutions. So you have to go back to the stage before the question of whether or not penalties are sufficient.

"People just aren't being prosecuted."

Companies must "set the right tone"

But Mr Stone says there are ways for ways for companies to manage the risk.

"It's important to set the right tone and make sure that people understand that fraud and corruption is not tolerated, and make sure people know what corruption is," he said.

"They need to make sure that there is a robust compliance framework in place and that people are actually checking things, and then using the sorts of risk-management tools that people set in place by allowing audits of subcontractors and actually doing an audit of subcontractors."